How to get involved with London Beer Week

How to get involved with London Beer Week

Posted on 15 March 2017 • Written By Eamonn Crowe

You live in a nation with a rather proud beer heritage, so it’s basically your patriotic duty to welcome the return of London Beer Week with open, slightly wobbly, arms. Running until this Sunday 19 March, expect a whole host of boozy events and special offers, as hop-heads make their way to LBW’s pop-up beer market, at Oval Space in Bethnal Green (open Thursday until Saturday). Read on for our pick of pubs and bars taking part this week and what’s on offer – see you at the bar.

Words: Eamonn Crowe

Sharp’s Brewery Lost & Found pop-up restaurant, Bethnal Green

As part of London Beer Week’s beer market hub this weekend (called The Beer Edit and opening on Thursday), Sharp’s Brewery is launching a temporary micro-restaurant, called Lost & Found. Guests are promised a gastronomic journey via beer and food pairings, all the work of Sharp’s beer sommelier (that’s surely a contender for job of the year). The restaurant is going to operate a no-bookings policy, with the Sharp's team hand-selecting punters for entry who 'look a bit lost'. As with The Beer Edit in general, Lost & Found’s opening hours are Thursday to Saturday from 6pm until 11pm, with an extra daytime session on Saturday, from midday until 5pm.

This new Brick Lane bar mixes one part booze food, to two parts great drinks. Expect small plates of lamb shank with cooling raita or raw scallops with jalapeño, for example, alongside fun cocktails such as the punchy Beijan Café (coffee, cherry and rum).

Why here: One of Soho’s smallest cocktail bars, this place is hidden beneath meatball restaurant Balls & Company and has a simple, unfussy charm. Snack on polenta chips or chocolate brownies with your bevvies.

A 1920s-inspired gin joint, this drinking den is unashamedly garish. Expect gimmicky presentation along the lines of the Tom & Jerry (a spicy bourbon, curaçao and salted chestnut gelato float, served with a cheese-baited mousetrap on the side). Fortunately, CTC's cocktails are more sophisticated than they look and taste pretty damn good too.